Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Let the waiting begin...

Here at Robin Central, the past four days have been a flurry of activity and excitement. Every 24 hours, like clock work, a beautiful, new egg appeared in the nest. Now that the clutch is complete, it's time to sit back and wait patiently for the eggs to hatch. The incubation period typically takes 12-14 days, which means that our baby robins are expected to hatch some time between May 1 and May 3. However, I want to assure all of our loyal blog readers that we don't plan to let our blog languish during this lull in activity. We have lots of fun activities planned, including a name-the-baby contest and a guess-the-hatching-date contest. In addition, we'll be updating you on Mrs. Robin's progress and sharing all sorts of interesting facts about the mating habits and parenting practices of the American robin. And best of all, you can check out our robincam for live streaming video of the nest.

Mrs. Robin seems to have settled into a comfortable routine. Despite my earlier concerns about her parenting skills, she is proving herself to be a very attentive and dedicated mother. She has left the nest a few times today (presumably to forage for food), but she usually returns within 5 or 10 minutes. I feel a little bit sorry for Mrs. Robin, because sitting still for 2 weeks seems like it would be awfully tedious. I feel like I should offer her some cross word puzzles or celebrity gossip magazines to help her pass the time. However, she always takes off in a huff whenever Bill or I approach the nest, so I guess we will just have to let her find her own ways to entertain herself.